1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure is generally related to the manipulation of fluids, for example, manipulating fluids for performing chemical, biochemical, cellular and/or biological assays, and more particularly to electrowetting to manipulate electrolytic fluids, for example reactants such as agents and reagents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Two of the primary factors currently driving the development of microfluidic chips for pharmaceuticals, the applied life sciences, and medical diagnostics include: (1) the reduction of sample volumes to conserve expensive reagents and reduce disposal problems; and (2) the reduction of test turnaround times to obtain laboratory results. Through the engineering of new processes and devices, time-consuming preparatory procedures and protocols can be automated and/or eliminated. This has been the motivation behind the development of microfluidics associated with lab-on-a-chip systems, biochips, and micro Total Analytical Systems (μTAS). The result has been a large number of mechanical designs for pumps, valves, splitters, mixers, and reactors that have been micro-fabricated in channels using photolithographic and other bonding and assembly methods.
There is also a growing need in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry and biology for performing large scale, combinatorial testing. One type of large-scale combinatorial testing employs microarrays. Each microarray consists of hundreds or thousands of spots of liquid applied to a slide or “biochip.” Each spot may, for example, contain a particular DNA segment. The microarrays are created using robots which move pins to wick up the appropriate fluid from reservoirs and to place each individual spot of fluid precisely on the slide. The hardware is expensive and the slides are time consuming to manufacture.